Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Iraq’s war on Islamic State has taken a heavy toll on the Iraqi army’s helicopter crews. And the battle of Mosul that began in October 2016 has only increased the pressure on the young aviation force, which formed with American assistance in 2007.

Many of the Iraqi army’s chopper crews fly from Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan and Qayyarah airfield south of Mosul. The force suffered its latest loss on Oct. 29, 2016, when a Bell IA-407 belonging to the army’s 21 Squadron crashed in the Mukeshefah area north of Samarra.

We spoke to two pilots who’ve been fighting ISIS for more than two years.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Following the seize of al-Watiya airbase in summer 2014 by the Libyan National Army (or LNA), LNA Air Force technicians and engineers started working on the refurbishing of former former Su-22s. Ten to twelve of these Su-22Ms were stored in shelters before the uprising and escaped the destruction by NATO because they were decommissioned.

Monday, November 14, 2016

The Libya
Dawn Air Force, one of two competing air arms in Libya, is overhauling
two former Libyan air force CH-47C Chinook heavylift transport
helicopters at Mitiga air base in Tripoli, with the goal of returning
the twin-rotor copters — serial numbers LC-017 and, probably,
LC-010 — to service in Libya’s grinding civil war.